[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 28878-28879]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        TRIBUTE TO LEVI PEARSON

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 4, 1999

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, this Saturday, November 6, 1999, the South 
Carolina Department of Archives and History will dedicate a historic 
marker to honor Levi Pearson, a leader in the civil rights movement in 
Clarendon County, South Carolina. Mr. Pearson personified great 
courage, leadership and perseverance in his role as a plaintiff in 
Pearson v. County Board of Education (1948) which led to the historic 
May 17, 1954 Supreme Court decision outlawing separate and unequal 
schools. Recordings of the civil rights movement in South Carolina rank 
him among the state's most outstanding pioneers for equality in 
education. Many local and national events, news articles, books and 
television documentaries recognize his role in the struggle which led 
to the Supreme Court's decision. Simple Justice by Richard Kluger and 
Stepping Stones to the Supreme Court by Benjamin F. Hornsby, Jr. are 
two publications that depict many of the details of Mr. Pearson's 
trial.
  For background, Mr. Speaker, I wish to enter for the record 
information from an article which was written as a tribute to him when 
he was inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame:
  ``An obscure country farmer, Levi Pearson never dreamed that his 
legal action on behalf of black children in Summerton, South Carolina 
would figure in the historic May 17, 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision 
outlawing separate and unequal schools. They are role models and an 
inspiration to all who value freedom and justice. As a partner, in the 
Clarendon County insurrection led by the Rev. Joseph Albert Delaine, 
Levi Pearson had unshakable faith in the victory of justice over an 
entrenched social order that seemed all but immovable.
  Black children in Summerton attended ramshackle Scott's Branch 
School, while white children attended classes in a modern facility. 
White school board officials said white folks paid most of the taxes, 
so white people were therefore entitled to better schools. There were 
30 school buses for whites in Clarendon County. None for Blacks. Some 
black youngsters had to make their way for nine miles across an arm of 
newly-formed Lake Marion. One child drowned as they paddled a boat. 
Appeals to schools officials for transportation such as that offered 
white failed. The school officials even refused to buy gas for an old 
bus the blacks bought.
  Farmer Levi Pearson, father of three children at Scott's Branch 
School (Daisy, James, and Eloise) was persuaded to bring a suit on 
behalf of his son, James. A black man suing white folks * * * no such 
thing had happened before in the memory of blacks living in Clarendon 
County. Levi Pearson was an instant hero among his people. But a threat 
to the white establishment. His credit was cut off by every white-owned 
store and bank in the county. He had enough money to buy seeds for the 
cotton, tobacco, oats and wheat he planted, but not enough for 
fertilizer. He had to cut timber to sell for cash, and borrow from 
hard-pressed blacks to buy fertilizer. That Autumn he couldn't rent a 
harvester from a white farmer, so he sat and watched as his harvest of 
oats and beans and wheat rot in the field. Three months after he filed 
the lawsuit, it was thrown out because of a technicality that he paid 
taxes in School District Five, while his children were going to school 
in District 26 for the high school and District 22 for the Grammar 
School. Another pupil's parent, Harry Briggs, Sr., filed suit a year 
later. He and Pearson had to flee for their lives many times. Briggs 
and his family lived in Florida and New York for 20 years before 
returning to Summerton in the 1970's but Mr. Pearson never left. 
Ultimately, their case was consolidated with similar cases from three 
other States in an action known as Brown vs. Board of Education, upon 
which the door to equal education opportunity was opened in the Supreme 
Court's Decision of May 17, 1954.''
  Mr. Pearson never sought fame or notoriety, but stood up for what he 
felt was right. I am reminded of the speech the late Dr. Martin Luther 
King gave about the ``Drum Major Instinct.'' A few excerpts go like 
this:
  ``* * * everybody can be great. Because everybody can serve. You 
don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make 
your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about 
Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory 
of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of 
thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of 
grace. A soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
  ``* * * Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about 
that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common 
denominator--that something we call death. We all think about it. And 
every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own 
funeral. and I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then 
I ask myself, ``What is it that I would want said? And I leave the word 
to you this morning.
  ``* * * If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer 
somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling 
wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a 
Christian ought, if I can

[[Page 28879]]

bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as 
the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.
  Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your right side or your left side, not 
for any selfish reason. I want to be on your right or your best side, 
not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition, but I just want to 
be there in love and in justice and in truth and in commitment to 
others, so that we can make of this old world a new world.''
  Mr. Pearson, and Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are now deceased. However, Mr. 
Pearson's widow still vividly remembers his struggles and this historic 
period in our Nation's history. Mr. Pearson lived a Christian and 
committed life for justice and we all know that his living was not in 
vain. Mr. Speaker, thank you and my colleagues for joining me in 
honoring the Levi Pearson who increased educational opportunities for 
children across the country.

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